The present invention relates generally to swimming pool covers and, more particularly, to a floating blanket or cover for a swimming pool that is retained in position with telescoping poles.
A great many types and designs of covers for outdoor swimming pools have become commercially available. Early covers were provided to prevent trash and debris from entering the pools and to provide protection from accidental immersion for children and pets when the pools were left unattended. More recently, covers designed to lay or float on the surface of the water have become popular. Floating covers in the form of thermal blankets or pneumatic mattresses insulate a pool from loss of heat, from loss of volatile chemicals such as chlorine, and minimize evaporation of water. Many pool covers are constructed of materials which also provide for pool heating a resulting from solar heating.
Most covers are simple sheets of plastic or other pliant material suspended over or floating on the surface of the water. Variations include mechanical operated covers of numerous kinds using rollers, tracks, hydraulic lifts, etc. to place rigid or flexible membranes above the surface of the water. An example is the pool cover disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 2,958,872 issued to Fred J. Meyer, Jr., on Nov. 8, 1960. Meyer discloses a swimming pool cover characterized by stringers spaced apart in a desired arrangement and a screen material attached to span the areas between the stringers. The cover is held in place over the pool by spring-loaded hooks which are hooked in eyes anchored in concrete at intervals around the periphery of the pool. U.S. Pat. No. 3,683,428 issued to Lester Morris on Aug. 15, 1972, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,072,920 issued to John I. Yeilott on Jan. 15, 1963 provide examples of pool covers which are designed to float on the surface of the water.
Use of the swimming pool covers described above, while providing adequate protection to the pool, also provide many difficulties. Mechanical operated devices save time, but they are expensive, are quite clumsy and often cannot be installed unless planned for during the original construction. The air-suspended cover disclosed by Meyer gives relatively poor insulation against heat losses, both because a plastic or canvas sheet is not a good insulator and a chimney effect occurs which sweeps moist warm air upward and out of the pool around the edges; radiation losses are also high. The time and energy required to cover and uncover the pool is often excessive. Plastic sheets and solar blankets which float on the surface of the pool are very susceptible to the wind, either being blown in a pile at one edge of the pool or blown completely out of the pool and into the yard. Further, most of the floating covers are not rigid enough to keep heavy or bulky items out of the pools nor do the pool covers described in the prior art off any protection from unauthorized use of the pool.